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Friday, 22 June 2007

A NEW term has emerged in Malaysian political debate and it arose from a column I wrote at the end of last year.

In the column, I said that Malaysian government waste wasn't "Malaysia boleh" (the national slogan that means "Malaysia can") but "Malaysia bodoh" ("bodoh" translates as stupid.) The column was emailed pretty much to anyone in Malaysia with an email account.

Many in Malaysia have taken to referring to government waste and poor decision making as coming from "Bodohland".

But really the term is too strong because there's a lot that is good in Malaysia. And besides, Malaysia is still a developing country. Allowances need to be made for that, but then the Malaysian Government needs to be careful that allowances do not become excuses.

Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi came to office in 2003 claiming he would tackle corruption. His efforts have been less than "boleh".

The man he appointed to head the anti-corruption agency was soon accused of corruption. At about the same time, a deputy police minister was accused of taking bribes to set criminal suspects free.

Abdullah did not require either man to step aside while investigations were made. Instead, he insisted that 85 per cent of corruption allegations proved baseless.

But then, that is because most are inadequately investigated in the first place.

Probably, there's less top-level corruption than is commonly imagined. The most damaging corruption that eats away at the very foundations of Malaysia as a civil society relates to police corruption.

A recent survey by Transparency International found that the public and business nominated the police as Malaysia's most corrupt institution, far ahead of more obvious candidates such as public works authorities or land offices.

A royal commission established by Abdullah called for an independent police complaints body to be set up. But the police chiefs objected. So, one was not set up.

Last year, Malaysians were shocked by the particularly nasty murder of a Mongolian model who had claimed to have had a child by the head of the Malaysian Strategic Research Centre, a local think tank with links to ruling party UMNO and the Malaysian armed forces. The head was close to Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Najib Abdul Razak.

The model was shot twice and her body blown up by hand grenades or explosives, presumably in an attempt to destroy evidence. Two members of an elite police unit were arrested for the murder. The unit is under Najib's administration.

That police allegedly would not only commit a murder but then go to such gruesome lengths to destroy the evidence sums up for many Malaysians all that is rotten about their police force. The trial of the police opened on Monday.

Why have Malaysians had to put up with such rotten police for so long? It makes you ask who is in charge. The police are under the Home Affairs Ministry. And, who was home affairs minister under the last prime minister? Current Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi.

Elsewhere a police minister in charge of such a corrupt police force would be fired, not promoted to be prime minister. But of course that would be to judge the Malaysian Government by the international standards from which it has long asked to be excused.

In more disappointing news for ordinary Malaysians, nine Japanese shipping companies that transport timber from Malaysia's timber-rich Sarawak state have been accused by Japanese tax authorities of failing to report $US9 million ($A10.6 million) income between 1999 and 2006.

The money was paid to a Hong Kong company, Regent Star, which is connected to Abdul Taib Mahmud, Sarawak's Chief Minister since 1981, and his family.

The Japanese authorities decided these payments were not legitimate tax expenses but bribes. Taib Mahmud has denied the allegations and has asked his administration's anti-corruption agency to investigate. He has not stood aside.

Not only is Taib Mahmud the Chief Minister, he is also Resource Management and Planning Minister. This means he is also Forestry Minister. And that is fortuitous because his brother, Moh'd Tufail bin Mahmud, is co-owner of Sanyan Group, one of Sarawak's biggest timber companies.

When the state-controlled cement and construction group CMS was privatised, it was sold to the Chief Minister's family. Two of the Chief Minister's sons are directors and CMS now gets the lion's share of state government road works and construction tenders.

Wealth from CMS and huge timber concessions have helped the family to buy a bank in Malaysia, and many other assets. The Malaysian media has reported, for example, that Taib Mahmud's wife and children control an Australian company, Sitehost, which owns the Hilton Hotel in Adelaide.

The wealth of Taib Mahmud and his family has long been an embarrassment to the Malaysian Government — but Taib Mahmud delivers votes and parliamentary seats.

As for the Japanese bribery allegations, no doubt Taib Mahmud and his family will be exonerated. Perhaps the Japanese are confused. Or perhaps bribes were paid and the independent investigation is not independent.

But it does seem unlikely that Taib Mahmud or his family would take bribes. They are already very wealthy and it's hard to imagine they could be that greedy.

Monday, 11 June 2007

So. A little bird tells me that "Users of the Stormwater Management and Road Tunnel (SMART) will be charged a RM2 toll. The toll will be effective from 11.59pm on June 14, Works Minister Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu said on Monday."

Studies had indicated that the critical stretch of Sungai Klang between Sg Klang /Sg Ampang confluence and Sg Gombak/ Sg Klang confluence to be flood prone areas and the fact that the river is further constrained by the Jalan Tun Perak Bridge (near Masjid Jamek) which is low, has resulted in the surrounding areas to experience flash floods.

The SMART system will be able to divert large volumes of flood water from entering this critical stretch via a holding pond, bypass tunnel and storage reservoir. This will reduce the flood water level at the Jalan Tun Perak Bridge, preventing spillover.

The Stormwater Management and Road Tunnel (SMART) project was incepted by the project proponent, namely MMC Berhad-Gamuda Berhad Joint Venture, primarily to mitigate the recurring floods in the city of Kuala Lumpur, the financial, business and commercial hub of Malaysia. However, at the design stage of SMART, the dual purpose concept was born from the ingenuity of the project proponents and the motorway tunnel was integrated into the system to relieve traffic congestion at the main Southern Gateway to the city centre.

The motorway tunnel will provide an alternative route for motorists from the Southern Gateway, i.e. KL-Seremban Highway, Federal Highway, Besraya and East-West Link entering and exiting the city centre. This will reduce traffic congestion at the Southern Gateway leading to the city centre. The travel time will be reduced significantly. For example from the Jalan Istana Interchange-Kampung Pandan the expected travel time is a mere four minutes compared to ten to fifteen minutes using the existing roads.

THE Stormwater Management and Road Tunnel will not be able to put an end to the flash floods problem faced by many KLites, on its own.

While the Smart tunnel would help ease traffic congestion at the southern main gateway to the city centre near Sungei Besi and provide a storm water management system to mitigate flooding problems in Kuala Lumpur, it is only one of the two components needed to solve flash floods in the Klang Valley.

The other component includes the construction of some 200 dams and flood retention ponds.

The Smart tunnels and the ponds are supposed to complement each other and only then would the problem be solved.

This was what Department of Irrigation and Drainage Malaysia director-general Datuk Paduka Keizrul Abdullah told reporters recently in an attempt to clarify and address issues that were raised by the public following last week's flash floods.

This SMART tunnel barely plays its part. I have travelled through this tunnel more times than I can count since it's on my way to work and back and have actually been caught in a jam a couple of times.

Inside the tunnel. Not very pleasant if you ask me. Not much of a view and the radio reception is horrible.

So they build this fancy little tunnel.. oh pardon me. Not all that little. It is the longest stormwater tunnel in South East Asia and second longest in Asia.